"Admiral, before telling the combat plan, should we give you a brief introduction to the current situation of maritime hegemony?" Gerhardt glanced at Xu Mo and made a sudden suggestion.

"Hmm? Haha, okay! In order to let everyone know more about the form of the ocean, I will first explain to you the general situation of maritime power in various countries." After seeing Xu Mo with Gerhardt's gaze, Hedram immediately woke up.

"Hahaha!" Of course, everyone present guessed why Gehratt made such a seemingly unnecessary suggestion, and they burst into laughter with kindness.

After all, Xu Mo's contribution to Sweden is well known. Now his position in the fleet is getting higher and higher, and he may even become the admiral of Sweden's second privateer fleet in the future. It is also Hedram's responsibility to train him. Everyone will not have any opinions on explaining the basic knowledge of sea power when explaining the combat plan.

Xu Mo rolled his eyes helplessly. Although Gerhardt was introducing the power of various countries to everyone, everyone in the room understood that it was actually just for him to listen to it alone. However, he could only bear this tone. Who made him a real navigator among these people?

"There are three most important maritime channels in the ocean, one is the New World route from Europe to the New World, one is the African route from Africa to Africa, and the other is the Eastern route from around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and to India. Among these three routes, which country has the most powerful maritime power and trade volume on a certain route, which is also called the maritime hegemony of this route. The current maritime form of these three routes is..."

Hedram took out a navigation map, and his fingers moved gracefully and slowly on the chart, telling everyone about the current hegemony of the various countries in the ocean. Xu Mo gradually understood the basic situation of this sea power world.

Twenty years ago, England and Spain had a huge maritime war due to the inheritance of the throne and the differences in religious beliefs. England defeated Spain's invincible fleet in the war, temporarily became the most powerful country at sea, seized the hegemony of the New World route, and wanted to plunder Spain's merchant ships loaded with wealth on the ocean.

And at the beginning of the century, England established the East India Company and began to compete with other powerful countries on the Eastern route, which had huge interests in Eastern trade. However, because of the large number of competitors, it was unable to dominate the Eastern route. Despite this, it is still the most powerful maritime power at present.

At the end of the old century and the beginning of the new century, Spain suffered huge failures in the oceans of the European continent and the whole world. The original territory Portugal and the Netherlands Federations successively independent and severely damaged it. On the ocean, it lost the hegemony of the New World routes with huge benefits. However, Spain is still strong. With nearly two centuries of plundering wealth, it temporarily withstood the sea invasion of England and struggled to maintain colonial rule over the New World and slave trade in Africa.

France was originally troubled by religious wars in the old century, but after Henry IV ascended the throne, he issued the "Nante Amnesty Order", and Catholicism became the state religion of France. However, it also adopted a policy of religious tolerance for Protestants, ending the Huguenot War that lasted for more than 30 years, and France was revived again.

During the reign of Henry IV, he had a good personal relationship with King Elizabeth of England, and the two countries entered a short honeymoon period. However, Elizabeth and Henry IV were already very old. It is said that Henry IV's heir Prince Louis was not friendly to England, but he was afraid that after the death of the old kings of the two countries, the two countries would re-enter the confrontation. In the ocean, France cannot be compared with England and Spain, but France still plays an important role in the Black Triangle trade.

The last maritime power was the Netherlands. After leaving Spain, the Netherlands Federation also established the East India Company, inherited Spain's Eastern route hegemony, and actively participated in the Black Triangle trade. Amsterdam also became the largest trading port in the world, and the Dutch in the new century was called the "sea coachman". Although the Netherlands received strong assistance from England during the War of Independence, they are also the powerful countries that are now the first to challenge England's maritime hegemony.

As for other European powers, Sweden is an emerging country, and maritime power is still in its infancy. Portugal has not been independent for a long time. Although their merchant ships can be seen everywhere on the ocean, they lack maritime power to fight. Denmark, Venice, and the Ottoman Empire only have local maritime power in secondary seas and do not have the strength to compete for hegemony in the global ocean.

As for the trade in other seas, although it cannot be compared with the three most important routes mentioned above, it also has great value, such as the North Sea hegemony fought for by England and the Nordic powers, the Mediterranean hegemony fought for by Ottomans and Spain and France, and the Baltic hegemony fought for by Sweden and Denmark.

"No matter how big a warship is, it is just a grain of sand in the desert on the vast ocean. If you want to intercept it, you must know its route. If we want to attack Clifford, we must let him go to a fixed route before we have the chance to compete with him." Hedram finally finished teaching Xu Mo this sea power class.

"If Clifford wants to come to a fixed route as we arrange, we must attack England's maritime route with huge interests!" Gerhardt added with a smile, "England's Black Triangle route and the Eastern route are not something that our ships can shake, so the only thing we can affect England is its North Sea route."

"The battle plan I formulated with Gerhard is to ask His Majesty Gustav to send armed merchant ships to pretend to be pirates from other countries to attack England's North Sea route. After the London spies heard from us that Clifford was attacked, we immediately set off, head north from Amsterdam, and fight Clifford to the death in the North Sea!" Hedram clenched his fingers and hammered heavily on the vast northern ocean of the chart.

"There is a message to inform everyone, because there are too many people involved in this operation and we cannot guarantee the confidentiality afterwards. Therefore, even if Clifford is successfully resolved, His Majesty Gustav has to declare us as pirates. Before this matter is downplayed, we cannot go back to Stockholm!" Hedram said lightly.

"Haha, I have always dreamed of becoming a fearless Viking pirate one day, but I didn't expect it to finally come true under the admiral's men today!" Charlie covered his mouth and laughed secretly.

After looking around, Xu Mo found that the people in the room seemed to have no psychological burden to become pirates, and he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion. It seems that the values ​​of Europeans and Easterners are indeed completely different. At least in China, a good people will never be able to embark on the path of robbers unless they cannot survive. However, these Westerners are different. Their natural adventurous spirit and desire to fight make them more adapted to the natural law of survival of the fittest.

...

"Little Blackney, Little Blackney, wait!" After the combat meeting, Xu Mo grabbed Blackney, watched around like a thief, and then forced him into his room.

"Alfred, I have said many times. Call me Mr. Blackney, not Little Blackney! Also, what do you want to do?" Blackney pouted and said dissatisfiedly. Looking at Xu Mo's sneaky and obscene look, Blackney raised his hands to protect his chest and looked at him vigilantly.

"Haha, this... I don't understand some of the combat plans of Admiral Hedram just now... Can you explain it to me again!" Xu Mo rubbed his hands and said a little embarrassedly.

"Oh, so that's the case, I thought..." Blackney put down his hand and breathed a sigh of relief, "Of course, you can ask!"

"Why!" Xu Mo looked at Blackney with an ugly face. No matter who was regarded as a stranger, he would not have a good face. "What is the Black Triangle trade mentioned by the Admiral? Are there many merchant ships carrying out trade activities on the North Sea route in England? I remember there are no prosperous ports and countries on it?"

As soon as Xu Mo finished speaking, he saw Blackney looking at him with wide eyes, and then his adorable little face showed a look of contempt, and almost blurted out that he was a big fool.

"His Excellency K. Anderson, everyone knows that you have very poor knowledge of navigation, but I really didn't expect that you don't even know the most basic common sense of a Swedish. Please don't stand beside me in the future. In addition, you'd better not tell anyone other than the Vistalos that you are the first mate on the Swedish warship, otherwise, the Admiral and we will be shamed!"

He opened his mouth wide and looked at Blackney in a daze. Xu Mo did not expect that his problem would attract him a bit of sarcasm. Seeing this arrogant boy turn around and open the door and go out. Xu Mo's face slowly turned white, and then turned from white to blue, the muscles on his face began to twitch slightly.

"Shadow Step!" Xu Mo's figure brought out a series of afterimages. Before Blackney could react, he was already standing in front of the door, blocking the boy's way, and gritted his teeth and said, "Where do you want to go? Blackney... Your Excellency!"

Blackney saw Xu Mo's ferocious expression, shrugged his shoulders indifferently, and continued to sarcastically: "His Excellency Alfred, you can ask for your childish questions at the dock by just finding a sailor on the dock. I really disdain to answer them. However, you'd better change into a sloppy dress and not be seen by others. You are the major mate on the Wistyros!"

Seeing that Blackney was not in the air and salt, and thinking of the stubborn temper of this copper and iron boy, Xu Mo was immediately discouraged, but he immediately remembered something, his eyes turned, and he smiled and moved open the door.

"Hmph!" Blackney saw Xu Mo who seemed to have chosen to give up asking himself, and frowned, hummed contemptuously, and opened the door.

Just as Blackney was about to go out, Xu Mo, behind him, smiled sinisterly and said something softly. After hearing this, Blackney's body stiffened there, his face gradually turned white, and then turned from white to blue. His cute little face wrinkled into a ball, and beads of sweat the size of beans appeared on his forehead, and slowly slid down his cheeks.

"Bang!" Blackney fell on the door again, turned around and looked at Xu Mo fiercely, looking at him with a vicious look, "How did you know!"
Chapter completed!